I feel like an oath of the ancients paladin is thematically a good match with a bard. I want to play a character who is charming, insatiably curious, enjoys travel, and cares a lot more about enjoyment than responsibilities. His backstory would go something like this: Parents wanted him to inherit a fine profession, but he was stifled and ran off to sea. After some negative experiences with a couple of bad captains/crewmates, he's decided to explore the land instead for even more freedom, and has been exploring for some months and loving it. The other characters would be people he met and liked during his travels.
At first I was building a paladin, but this could also be seen as a competitor with a college of valor bard. So here's where I am now:
Half elf using point-buy: strength 16, dexterity 10, Constitution 14, intelligence 12, wisdom 8, charisma 16 (I know switching intelligence and wisdom would be the smart choice but it works for the character's personality that I want). Skills: athletics, perception, insight, persuasion, and two more of my choice (probably investigation and deception). Gear: sword, shield, and chain mail. Advances as a paladin until Pal7, then takes Bard1, then Pal8, and then continues advancing as a bard of lore from then on. At Pal4 takes a feat (sentinel?), at Pal8 takes Cha18. At Bard4 takes Cha20 or war caster, takes the other at Bard8.
For his fighting style, I just discovered the tunnel fighter option, and think it pairs really well with the sentinel feat (and War Caster? Viciously mocking 20 people running past me is much more plausible then swinging my sword 20 times in six seconds) and what I want to do: stand just in front of the main spell casters, protecting them from both magical and physical attacks with my positioning.
Questions:
At Bard6, pick up counterspell and… what? At Bard10, pick up Circle of power and… what?
At Bard10, which is level 18, I want my party huddling inside my circle of power to be likely to withstand a meteor swarm with little to no damage. Everyone's saves are at +5 because of my aura of protection, have advantage because of the circle of power, and a successful save means no damage because of circle of power. Failed saves are still at half damage because of the aura of warding, for an average of 70 damage. Most 18th level characters should be able to survive that, and for the wizard who can't, I can hand out bardic inspiration so he probably won't have to.
Comments? Recommendations? Is giving up higher level spells and spell slots compensated for by the paladin's superior defense, melee offense, and auras?
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I feel like an oath of the ancients paladin is thematically a good match with a bard. I want to play a character who is charming, insatiably curious, enjoys travel, and cares a lot more about enjoyment than responsibilities. His backstory would go something like this: Parents wanted him to inherit a fine profession, but he was stifled and ran off to sea. After some negative experiences with a couple of bad captains/crewmates, he's decided to explore the land instead for even more freedom, and has been exploring for some months and loving it. The other characters would be people he met and liked during his travels.
At first I was building a paladin, but this could also be seen as a competitor with a college of valor bard. So here's where I am now:
Half elf using point-buy: strength 16, dexterity 10, Constitution 14, intelligence 12, wisdom 8, charisma 16 (I know switching intelligence and wisdom would be the smart choice but it works for the character's personality that I want). Skills: athletics, perception, insight, persuasion, and two more of my choice (probably investigation and deception). Gear: sword, shield, and chain mail. Advances as a paladin until Pal7, then takes Bard1, then Pal8, and then continues advancing as a bard of lore from then on. At Pal4 takes a feat (sentinel?), at Pal8 takes Cha18. At Bard4 takes Cha20 or war caster, takes the other at Bard8.
For his fighting style, I just discovered the tunnel fighter option, and think it pairs really well with the sentinel feat (and War Caster? Viciously mocking 20 people running past me is much more plausible then swinging my sword 20 times in six seconds) and what I want to do: stand just in front of the main spell casters, protecting them from both magical and physical attacks with my positioning.
Questions:
At Bard6, pick up counterspell and… what? At Bard10, pick up Circle of power and… what?
At Bard10, which is level 18, I want my party huddling inside my circle of power to be likely to withstand a meteor swarm with little to no damage. Everyone's saves are at +5 because of my aura of protection, have advantage because of the circle of power, and a successful save means no damage because of circle of power. Failed saves are still at half damage because of the aura of warding, for an average of 70 damage. Most 18th level characters should be able to survive that, and for the wizard who can't, I can hand out bardic inspiration so he probably won't have to.
Comments? Recommendations? Is giving up higher level spells and spell slots compensated for by the paladin's superior defense, melee offense, and auras?